I have been watching wrestling for 17 years, and probably 98% of it has been WWE. To me everything else just seemed a little weird, and just not the same. WCW was the enemy, ECW wasn’t an issue, and even TNA just isn’t for me. And then there’s the AWA. They certainly had the talent, as most of them ended up in WWE anyway, but for some reason they couldn’t stay with the times. They were far too old fashioned during half of the 80s and then too cartoonish and bizarre for the other half. After about a decade of lousy business moves and egocentric booking decisions, Verne Gagne and AWA were gone by the early 90s. I mean, this is the guy that passed on Hulk Hogan circa 1983, pushed his wiener son to the moon, and retired with his World Title, so it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.

I stumbled upon this tape at the local Value Village, and frankly, I can’t pass on a wrestling movie for $0.99. The movie is titled "the Best of the 80s", so I’d say we’re off to a great start. I didn’t know what I was in for, but it was sure going to be fun!

Surprise #1 comes as we are introduced to our host, Eric Bischoff! He runs down what we can expect from this video, including some great action, highlights on superstars that retired (who could he be talking about?), and much much more. Including a look at the history of wrestling. Let’s get started.

We get a quick history lesson on the sport of wrestling, whether this is true or not I’ll leave to the historians, spotlighting Henry VIII and Abraham Lincoln. Yeah, I don’t care about this. We’re not off to a great start.

Back to EZE, as he talks about the characters that make wrestling so great.

From the good guys, we see clips of Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Jimmy Snuka, Sgt. Slaughter, and a very young Shawn Michaels. Its funny though, because the only legend mentioned is AWA’s beloved owner, Verne Gagne. I don’t like where this is going.

From the bad guys we get Jesse Ventura, Stan Hansen, Jimmy Garvin, good old Col. DeBeers, the Road Warriors, Curt Hennig, and a very young, and somewhat smaller Yokozuna.

From the ugly, we get all kinds of colorful characters, but most importantly KAMALA! Wow, this tape just paid for itself. Others include Jerry Blackwell, Adrian Adonis, and very young Nasty Boys. Thats all well and good, but we’ve had a Kamala sighting, so I’m happy! Some strange looking guys though.

Its big time Championship match time, focusing on some of the great rivalries and matches from the 80s. We start with World Champion Verne Gagne vs. Nick Bockwinkle. The announcer goes over Gagne’s credentials as we see him pound on Bockwinkle. Gagne wins with a back suplex. Strange. People talk about Flair being old, geez I can only imagine how old this guy is. At least Flair still has his locks though. Anyway, Verne becomes the only man to ever retire with the Championship, and the Championship Committee found that the only man deserving to be champ was the guy that Gagne just beat, Nick Bockwinkle. Wouldn’t it have made sense just to lose to him in the first place?

We move onto Bockwinkle vs. Hulk Hogan. Bockwinkle dominates early, but then its all Hogan. We get the boot and Hogan lands the leg drop. Bobby Heenan hits Hogan with a foreign object, and Bockwinkle is back in control. Hogan is bleeding and Heenan throws an object into the ring, but wait, Hogan gets to it first! He nails Bockwinkle and gets a three count! And of course, the referee finds out about the foreign object, and the championship gets returned to Bockwinkle. Crap! Its also weird that they keep calling the Hulkster, "the incredible hulk", as if Marvel Comics won’t find out.

We get some clips of Bockwinkle losing the belt to German and Japanese wrestlers, who in turn lost the belt to Rick Martel, whom them refer to as a "model" wrestler. Subtle. Seems kind of odd that they would miss the boat with Hogan, and then put the belt on Rick Martel. Anyway, we move onto clips of Martel and Stan Hansen. Strange stuff as Hansen is clearly in the ropes with a Boston crab, but the referee neglects this and awards him the title. It seems that Hansen missed a few title defenses, and the belt was put back on Bockwinkle. Not exactly a rich history.

We cut to a bloody match between Bockwinkle and Curt Hennig, in a championship bout between the two. The two would fight to a sixty minute draw on one occasion before Hennig would win the title at SuperClash 2, with the aid of Larry Zbyszco and a roll of dimes. The announcer also makes reference that Hennig was a "perfect" wrestler, in another clever inside joke. Morons. Anyway, there was controversy a plenty after this match ended, with Hennig being awarded the belt, even though there were dimes all over the ring. Well, I can understand the Championship committee coming up with that conclusion, I mean its not as if they had video evidence of Larry handing the roll over to Curt, coupled with the fact that there were dimes everywhere.

We move onto Hennig losing the belt to Jerry Lawler. Basically just Hennig punching Lawler, until Lawler punches back and lands a slingshot into the turnbuckle. Well that’s it for Hennig, as any good wrestling fan knows that’s like Superman being hit by Kryptonite. However, Jerry would be stripped of the title five months later for failing to defend the title on several occasions. That sounds awfully familiar...

Anyway, instead of giving the title to any contender, the committee actually came up with the bizarre idea that somebody would have to earn the title in a 20 man battle royal. What a novel idea to ensure the validity of the title. Larry Zbyzsko would dump out the Z-Man and become World Champion.

We cut to a title match between Zbyzsko and Sgt. Slaughter. Slaughter goes for the Slaughter Cannon, but nails the referee instead. Zbyzsko tries to ambush Slaughter, but gets caught in the Cobra Clutch! Another referee comes in and Zbyzsko is out. Slaughter wins the title, but wait, it seems that since the original referee was knocked out by Slaughter, the belt would go back to Zbyzsko. Garbage!

Back to Uncle Eric in his cute Nike track suit, and he tells us a little bit about tag team wrestling.

We start out talking about the High Flyers tag team, Jim Brunzell and Greg Gagne. Oh boy. It seems that their high flying skills and athleticism can be traced back to Verne Gagne himself. Even Brunzell? Anyway, we see them fighting the East/West Connection, Jesse Ventura and Adrian Adonis and then Ken Patera and Jerry Blackwell. Patera gets the pin, and for some reason, the announcer assumes that its a disqualification. Right. I’m not really sure why there’s such confusion, as we all saw the ref count to three. Moving on.

Baron Von Rascke and The Crusher would win the titles a year later, before losing them to the Road Warriors. We see clips of the Road Warriors pounding on Jerry Blackwell and Boom Boom Bundy, and the Longriders, before losing the titles to Jimmy Garvin and Steve Regal. Its funny cause during the Longriders clip, you can clearly see a lone guy smoking behind the curtain. Not sure why, but it just looks hilarious. Anyway, Big Scott Hall and Curt Hennig would pick up the titles soon thereafter, but lose them to Buddy Rose and Doug Sommers. For some reason, the titles changed hands via countout.

We get a look at the incredibly young "Midnight" Rockers, who had a long feud with Sommers and Rose. Huge battle between the two teams, with blood spilling everywhere. The Rockers would eventually pick up the titles in a rematch. From there the titles would go into "turmoil", the announcer’s words, not mine, with the titles changing 4 times in 14 months. Wow, I wonder what they would think of today’s team team wrestling "scene" featuring slapped together teams and title changes a plenty. Anyway, we get our first look at a very young Paul Heyman with his tag team, the Midnight Express Dangerous Alliance? Wow, to me those teams were different entities altogether. The "Express" would then lose the titles back to the Rockers , who would lose them to Bad Company.

Bad Company would get picked up by Diamond Dallas Page, who looks really funny as a manager, and then lose the belts to Ken Patera, and some guy who’s name I missed. I don’t care. The Destruction Crew (Beverly Brothers) would put the Olympians out of action, causing them to miss title defenses, which in turn caused them to be stripped of the titles.

A Championship tournament would be set up with the finals coming down to the Destruction Crew facing Paul Diamond and Greg Gagne. Sadly, once again the announcer’s words, not mine, Gagne was ambushed by Kokina Maximus (Yokozuna) ending his "storied" career. The strange thing is that the referee clearly saw Yoko drop the bomb on Gagne, but didn’t call for the disqualification. Ugh!

Back to Eric, as its time to introduce the ladies of the 80s. Man I love that term. Anyway, we see clips of Wendi Ricter, Sherri Martel, Candi Devine, Madusa Micelli, Tina Meretti (Ivory), and Magnificent Mimi. It seems that Mimi appeared in an issue of Playboy, but she never appeared on WWE, so I don’t know who she is. Oh well.

Eric talks about television and its impact on wrestling in the 80s. Pay-Per-Views are mentioned as turning regular events into mega-events. WrestleMania and Starrcade aren’t mentioned though, as apparently Super Sunday was the biggest of all time. I won’t discount that Super Sunday was a big event, but it clearly showed where the company was headed, having Hulk Hogan vs. Nick Bockwinkle in the undercard, and Mad Dog Vachon and the "Champion of Champions" Verne Gagne vs. Jerry Blackwell and Shiek Al-Kaisse as the main event.

SuperClash: Night of Champions would take place in 1985 and had wrestlers from both AWA and NWA in Chicago’s Komisky Park. Ric Flair, Magnum TA, Sgt. Slaughter, the Freebirds, and Kamala are all shown in their glory. WrestleRock ’86 would somewhat fill the Metrodome in Minnesota, and featured 16 big matches. It really looks bad as there are rows and rows of empty seats. Clips from SuperClash 2, and the infamous SuperClash 3 are shown as well. Its really sad to see them talk about the Mega Events on Pay-Per-View in today’s over-saturated market. The only real Mega Event today is WrestleMania. Other than the other "big three", the other events aren’t really all that appealing. I mean, who is going to spend $35 on the No Way Out pay-per-view, when you only get a handful of matches and several pointless diva segments?

We move onto wrestlers that retired in the 80s including Superstar Billy Graham, Larry "The Axe" Hennig, The Crusher, Wahoo McDanial, Nick Bockwinkle, Ray Stevens, and of course, Verne Gagne. Geez what an ego.

Wrestlers that we lost in the 80s include Bruiser Brody and Adrian Adonis to name a few. Its sad, because a few of these guys looked like they were still wrestling up until their deaths, which speaks volume of the AWA product.

We see clips of some great interviews with all of the past AWA stars, as well as some of the greatest hits from the 80s. I gotta say that The Crusher seemed pretty funny, actually reminds me a bit of Ben Grimm.

Eric closes up the tape, saying he’s looking forward to an AWA "Best of the 90s" tape in another nine and a half years. Right. I don’t even think that AWA lasted another nine and a half months.

Looking at the credits, it comes as no surprise that Verne Gagne was the executive producer of this video. I am surprised. No really, I am. Seriously. No sarcasm at all.

Here’s the thing:

This tape showcases the major issue that would plague the AWA during its final years. Its the same old story of booking yourself and your old geezer buddies over the future of the company, and the new blood going elsewhere and making it big. Just think of how big the AWA would have been if they had held onto the Hulkster. I don’t believe that Gagne was the businessman that Vince McMahon is, frankly I don’t see Gagne as a businessman at all, but the point remains that the AWA could have been more than it was.

It actually reminds me of the first episode of ECW on TNN right before my beloved RollerJam. Yeah, we used to have this guy, until he left. By constantly focused on your competition, it makes your product look weaker. WCW was always concerned with what WWE was doing, and it made them look inferior to many. AWA certainly had the talent, but they just could adapt to change and put over new talent. The Hogan and Slaughter "Dusty Finish" matches are prime examples of this, as the fans were rabid for a title change, but instead got lameass technicalities. Still nice to see Kamala though!